
aass_'E_4__2ii 
",§72 



Book 



/ 




/»■<■*' 



OrFICIAL CIEOULAR 




On the 1st of May, 1869, a number of gentlemen i^" f-^^ city of 
New Orleans formed tliemselves into an Associa. :-,,.^'^he 

style of the "Southern Historical Society," with ,V 

to hold its seat in that city, and with thedesion c -ted 

societies in the States of Aiar^dand, Virg-inia, Noi'.p JJ; ■■ , South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississip;^i, l\x' '■*, Arkansas, 
Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky, and the Dibtr'ct i . Columbia; 
but New Orleans was not found a favorable loc;itio • >: the parent 
society, and therefore, under the call of the said society, a Conven- 
tion was held at the Montgomery White Sulphv.r Springs, in Vir- 
ginia, on the 14th of August, 1873, by which th. s-^ciety was re- 
organized, with a change of the scat of the pare,.t society to the 
city of Richmond, Virginia. 

The following resolutions were adopted by the sanl convention: 

Resolved^ 1. That the headquarters of the Southern Historical 
Society be transferred to Richmond, Virginia. 

2. That the convention, in order to carry out the purposes pro- 
posed by the Executive Committee of the Southern. Historical 
Society, at New Orleans, proceed to re-organize the society, with 
the object and purposes set forth in the annexed paper, as modified, 
and to elect ofhcers. 

8. That this organization be retained on its present b-^sis, and 
that the officers shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary and 
s^ Treasurer, and Executive Committee, resident in the State of Vir- 
^ ginia, and a Vice-President in each of the Southern States. 

4. That each Vice-President shall be ex-officio president of the 
auxiliar}'- State society, and is requested to organize the same and 
the affiliated local societies. 

5. That the Secretary shall receive a salary to be fixed by the 
Executive Committee. 

6. That the society adopt some financial scheme to raise funds ^.o 
carry out the purposes of the organization and the publication of 
its historical material. ■ 



b4i5 

,7 
.5 7£ 



7. That the fee of annual membership be three dollars, and of 
life membership fifty dollars. 

8. That the publication of the material collected be made either 
by means of a magazine, or by occasional volumes of transactions, 
as may be found most expedient. 

9. That the society as soon as re-organized proceed to enroll 
members and to extend its membership. 

10. That in all questions touching the organization of the society, 
when a division is called for, the vote shall be taken by States, and 
each State shall be entitled to two votes. 

The following is the paper referred to in the second resolution, 
being the general outline for the original organization of the society, 
as modified by the convention : 

The Southern Historical Society is organized with the following 
general outline: 

A parent society, to hold its seat and its archives in the city of 
Richmond, Virginia, with affiliated societies to be organized in all 
the States favorable to the object proposed; these in their turn 
branching into local organizations in the difierent townships — 
forming thus a wide fellowship of closely co-ordinated societies, 
with a common centre in the parent association in the said city. 

The object proposed to be accomplished is the collection, classifi- 
cation, preservation, and final publication, in some form to be here- 
after determined, of all the documents and facts bearing upon the 
eventful history of the past few years, illustrating the nature of the 
struggle from which the country has just emerged, defining and 
vindicating the principles which lay beneath it, and marking the 
stages through which it was conducted to its issue. It is not under- 
stood that this association shall be purely sectional, nor that its 
labors shall be of a partisan character. 

Everything which relates to this critical period of our national 
history, pending the conflict, antecedent or subsequent to it, from 
the point of view of either, or of both the contestants; everything, 
in short, which shall vindicate the truth of history is to be indus- 
triously collated and filed. 

It is doubtless true, that an accepted history can never be written 
in the midst of the stormy events of which that history is com- 
posed, nor by tlie agents through whose efficiency they were y/rought. 
The strong passions which are evoked in ever}'- human conflict dis- 
turb the vision and warp the judgment, in the scales of whose 
criticism the necessary facts are to be weighed — even the relative 
importance of these facts cannot be measured by those who are in 
too close proximity. Scope must be afibrded for the development 
of the remote issues before they can be brought under the range of 
a philosophical apprehension ; and the secret thread be discovered, 
running through all history, upon which its single facts crj'-stalize 
in the unity of some great Providential plan. 



The generations of the disinterested must succeed the generations 
of the prejudiced before history, properly termed such, can be 
written. This, precisely, is the work we now attempt, to construct 
the archives in which shall be collected these memoirs to serve for 
future history. 

It is believed ' that invaluable documents are scattered over the 
whole land, in loose sheets, perhaps lying in the portfolios of 
private gentlemen, and only preserved as souvenirs of their own 
parts in the historic drama. 

Existing in forms so perishable, regarded, it may be, only as so 
much waste paper, by those into whose hands they must fall, no 
delay should be suffered in their collection and preservation. 

There is doubtless, too, much that is yet unwritten floating only 
in the memories of the living, which if not speedily rescued will 
be swallowed in the oblivion of the grave, but which, if reduced to 
record and collated, would afford the key to many a cypher, in a 
little while to become unintelligible for want of interpretation. 

All this various material, gathered from every section, will need 
to be industriously classified and arranged, and finally deposited in 
the central archives of the Societ}^, under the care of apj)ropriate 
guardians. 

To this task of collection we invite the immediate attention and 
co-operation of our copatriots throughout the South, to facilitate 
which we propose the organization of State and district associa- 
tions, that our whole people may be brought in harmony of action 
in this important matter. 

The rapid changes through which the institutions of the country 
are now passing, and the still more stupendous revolutions in the 
opinions of men, remind us that we stand to-day upon the outer 
verge of a great historic cycle, within which a completed past will 
shortly be enclosed. Another cycle ma.y touch its circumference, 
but the events it shall embrace will be gathered around another 
historic centre, and the future historian will pronounce that in 
stepping from the one to the other he has entered upon another 
and separate volume of the nation's record. 

Let us, who are soon to be in that past to which we properly 
belong, see there are no gaps in the record. 

Thus shall we discharge a duty to the fathers whose principles 
we inherit; to the children, who will then know whether to honor 
or to dishonor the sires that begot them ; and, above all, to the 
dead heroes sleeping on the vast battle plains, from the Susque- 
hannah to the Rio Grande, whose epitaph history yet waits to en- 
grave upon their tombs. 

The funds raised by initiation fees, assessments, donations and 
lectures, after defraying the current expenses, will be approprited 
to the safe-keeping of the archives, and publication of the transac- 
tions. 

For the accomplishment of these ends contributions are respect- 
fully solicited from all parties interested in the establishment and 
prosperity of the Southern Historical Society, 



Contributions to the archives and library of the Society are re- 
spectfully solicited under the following specific divisions : 

1. The histories and historical collections of the individual States 
from the earliest periods to the present time, including travels, 
journals and maps. 

2. Complete files of the newspapers, periodicals, literary, scien- 
tific and medical journals of the Southern States, from the earliest 
times to the present day, including especially the period of the 
recent American civil war. 

3. Geological, topographical, agricultural, manufacturing and 
commercial reports, illustrating the statistics, climate, soil, re- 
sources, products and commerce of the Southern States. 

4. Works, speeches, sermons and discourses relating to the recent 
conflict and political changes. Congressional and State reports 
during the recent war. 

5. Official reports and descriptions, by officers and privates and 
newspaper correspondents and eye-witnesses, of campaigns, military 
operations, battles and sieges. 

6. Military maps. 

7. Reports upon the munitions, arms and equipments, organiza- 
tion, number and losses of the various branches of the Southern 
armies — infantry, artillery, cavalry, ordnance and commissary and 
quartermaster departments. 

8. Reports of the Adjutant General of the late C. S. A., and of 
the Adjutant Generals of the armies, departments, districts and 
States, showing the resources of the individual States, the available 
fighting population, the number, organization and losses of the 
forces called into actual service. 

9. Naval operations of the Confederate States. 

10. Operations of the Mtre and Mining Bureau. 

11. Commercial operations. 

12. Foreign relations, diplomatic correspondence, etc. 

13. Currency. 

. 14. Medical statistics and medical reports. 

15. Names of all officers, soldiers and sailors in the military and 
naval service of the Confederate States who were killed in battle or 
died of disease or wounds. 

16. Names of all wounded officers, soldiers and sailors. The 
nature of the wounds should be attached to each name, also the loss 
of one or more limbs should be carefully noted. 

17. Published reports and manuscripts relating to civil prisoners 
held during the war. 

18. All matters, published or unpublished, relating to the treat- 
ment, diseases, mortality, and exchange of prisoners of war. 

19. The conduct of the hostile armies in the Southern States ; 
private and public losses during the war; treatment of citizens 
by hostile forces. 

20. Southern poetry, ballads, songs, photographs of distinguished 
Confederates, etc. 



The following are the officers of the Southern Historical Society, 
under the reorganization : 

Parent Society, Richmond, Va. — Gen. Jubal A. Early, President; 
Hon. Robert M. T. Hunter, Vice-President; Rev. J. Wm. Jones, 
Secretary and Treasurer. 

Executive Committee.— Gen. Dabney H, Maury, Chairman; Col. 
Charles S. Venable, Col. Wm. Preston Johnson, Col. Robert E. 
Withers, Col. Joseph Mayo, Col. Geo. W. Munford, Lt. Col. Archer 
Anderson, Maj. Robert Stiles, Geo. L. Christian, Esq. 

Vice-Presidents of States. — Gen. Isaac R. Trimble, Maryland ; Gov. 
Zebulon B. Vance, North Carolina; Gen. M. C. Batler, South Caro- 
lina; Gen. A. H. Colquit, Georgia; Admiral R. Semmes, Alabama; 
Col. W. Call, Florida; Gen. Wm. T. Martin, Mississippi; Gen. J. B. 
Hood, Louisiana; Col. T. M. Jack, Texas; Hon. A. H. Garland, 
Arkansas; Gov. Isham G. Harris, Tennessee; Gen. J. S. Marmaduke, 
Missouri; Gen. S. B. Buckner, Kentucky; W. W. Corcoran, Esq., 
District of Columbia. 

The secretary elected by the Society (Col. Geo. W. Munford) 
faithfully carried out his instructions until other public duties con- 
strained him to resign, and the present incumbent was elected. 

The legislature of Virginia passed a bill giving the society such 
quarters in the State capitol as the Governor and Superintendent of 
Public Buildings might assign them, and we have thus secured an 
excellent office where our archives are as safe as those of the State. 
The work of collecting material has steadily progressed, and the 
degree of success which has attended the effort may be inferred 
from the following very general summary of material on hand made 
in the last annual report of the' Executive Committee : 

" In the way of official reports we have a very nearly complete 
set of all the reports printed by the Confederate departments, em- 
bracing messages of the President and Heads of Departments, re- 
ports of battles, statutes at large of Congress, acts and resolutions 
of the Senate and House of Representatives ; general orders of the 
Adjutant-General's department, and a large collection of reports of 
the several State governments. We have in MSS. a full set of re- 
ports of Longstreet's corps ; all of Ewell's reports from the opening 
of the campaign of '63 to the close of the waj:; all of the papers of 
General J. E. B. Stuart ; a full set of the papers of General S. D. 
Lee's corps, and a large number of most valuable reports of other 
officers of the different armies of the Confederacy. We have a 
complete set of the reports of the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War to the United States Congress, which embraces testimony 
of the leading Federal generals on nearly every one of their cam- 
paigns and battles; and we have also a number of other Federal 
official reports, and are arranging to get the whole of them. We 



6 

are indebted to General A. A. Humphries, Chief of Engineers of 
the United States army, for a set of beautiful maps illustrating the 
movements of the armies, and for the courteous promise of adding 
other maps to those sent. We have in MS. a full sketch of the 
history of Longstreet's corps, by Gen. E. P. Alexander, and a num- 
ber of MS. narratives of other commands, campaigns, and move- 
ments, written by those whose position and reliability render them 
very valuable. Dr. J. R. Stevenson has given us documents fully 
vindicating the Confederate authorities from the charge of cruelty 
to Federal prisoners. We have a very large collection of pamphlets, 
published during the war and since, which throw light on our 
history. We have full bound files of the New York Herald and 
Tribune foT the years of the war, and also files of several Richmond 
papers for the same period. General Early has presented us with a 
bound volume of articles written by himself on various matters 
pertaining to the war, and the secretaries have earnestly sought to 
gather and preserve everything which appears in the press and 
seems of any value. 

"We have on our shelves many of the books that have been 
written about the war, and are arranging to secure all that can be 
of any possible value to the future historian. In fine, we have 
already in our archives invaluable material for the history of every 
part of the war. We have the promise of valuable additions, and 
we hope soon to have a complete arsenal from which the defender 
of our cause may draw any desired weapon." 

On the 1st of January last we begun the publication of Monthly 
Papers, which will be made up of selections from our most valua- 
ble MSS. and documents, and contain sketches and discussions of 
the most important questions and events of the late war. 

We mail our Papers free of charge to members of the Society who 
have imid their fees, and to other subscribers at $3 per annum in 
advance. 



How Our Friends Can Help Us. 

1. Become members of the Society by sending the Secretary $50 
for a Life member's certificate, or $3 for an Annual membership. 

2. If you are alreMy an annual member, see that your renewal 
fees are regularly paid. 

3. Talk to your friends about the Society, and endeavor to induce 
them to become members. 

4. Send us, and try to induce others to send us, material for our 
archives — such as is indicated above. 

5. Many may find it convenient to make contributions of money 



1 

to enable the Society to carry on its work. If you cannot con- 
tribute as much as Mr. Corcoran's liberal donation of $500 per 
annum, you may aid us by donations of smaller sums. 

6. Aid us in securing in every locality efficient and reliable can- 
vassers, to whom we can pay a liberal commission. 

7. Send us advertisements for our advertising pages, which we 
will insert at the following rates : j 

12 mos. 6 mos. 3 moa. ymo. 

1 page $75 $40 $25 $10 

J page 40 25 15 6 

ipage 25 15 8 3 

All communications should be addressed to 

Rev. J. WM. JONES, 
Secretary Southern Historical Society, 

Richmond, Va. 
Office So. Hist. Society, 
March 20, 1876. 




tmr'iu 



